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Just upon him in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right. Keep keep your place here in Second Kings four and turn back, if you would, to Exodus chapter twenty two. And then when we're done in Exodus 22, keep a place because we're going to go back to Exodus again anyways. But as I mentioned this morning, everyone that was here this morning already knows the subject matter for the sermon this evening. And that has to do with slavery in the Bible. Slavery in the Bible. This morning, I went over a lot of different, um, laws in the Old Testament that are very often misunderstood and tried to be, you know, turned against Christians say, Oh, you like the Old Testament laws. Well, what do you want shellfish? And what about the Sabbath? And what about sacrifice? What, you know? So we went over all that this morning, but one of the biggest ones that people that, especially the atheists and people who want to just mock ridicule the word of God and try to use against Christians is they'll say, well, the Bible promotes slavery. Do you know that the Bible endorses slavery? And it's just fine to have slaves in the Bible and stuff like that. And they use this word, you know, the, these words, uh, regularly, and it's this type of argumentation. And I think unfortunately, a lot of Christians are kind of ignorant when it comes to this topic in general, one, because I don't think it's preached on very often at all. I think a lot of preachers want to pretend like anything that might remotely resemble of anything to do with slavery. They don't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole. They don't want to go near it. And you know, the bad part about that is then you got people left questioning and wondering and not really knowing, well, what does the Bible say? We ought not to be afraid to touch on any part of God's word. I mean, praise God, his word is true. And his word is right. And when we approach God's word, it should be from the standpoint of God is right. And if there's anything that I think is wrong, I'm wrong if the Bible says something different, that's just point number one, just a starting point of going, well, what is right? Now, when we think of slavery, what, what normally will come to mind for us are all things that are wrong, that the scripture does not allow for. You think about people just being beaten and like treated horribly and being stolen from other countries and brought here on boats and just forced into labor. That is not right. Okay. When people are, are, are stolen, right? If someone just goes and just rounds up a group of people, we already saw what God's law is on man stealers. Remember, someone's going to steal a person and sell them. That's the death penalty. So just right off the bat, if you think of like American slaves or something like, you know, something that happened in this country hundreds of years ago, the Bible doesn't endorse what, you know, what that was all about. Also, one of the reasons why people are going to bring up slavery and say, Oh, you know, a Bible endorses slavery is because the modern versions of the Bible use the word slavery. When the King James Bible doesn't, you can find the word slave or slavery, a form of slave, like two times in the King James Bible. One is in the book of Revelation. I forget where the other references off the top of my head, but it's mentioned twice. So it's not that they didn't have the word, but it wasn't used because it wasn't, I don't think it's really appropriate word for describing what the Bible describes. The Bible describes servants. So there's servants and masters. Now there's two different types of servants that you'll find in scripture. There's the hired servant, which is very common that you'll find like today, even if you wanted to think of a servant master relationship, that would be a hired servant. You're an employee for someone who's your boss, right? If you think of servant and master, it's boss employee, right? That's the other way around employee boss. That would be in, in many areas of the, of the scripture when it's talking about servants, that's the type of relationship it's talking about. You have someone who's ruling over you because you are employed by them. You are hired by them to do a job. They're going to tell you what to do. And as a servant, you're supposed to do what they tell you to do, right? But you're not bound to that employer as a hired servant. Just like today, if your employer tells you to do something that you don't want to do, if they tell you, no, you need to do this, you can quit. You can leave. You don't have to remain employed by that person. That is a hired servant status. Okay. The other type of servitude or servant in the Bible is a bond servant because they are bound. They are obligated and they must, and you, you lose freedom when you are a bond servant. Okay. Now I'm not going to try to sugar coat the Bible at all. Because it is what it is and it says what it says. And we need to just be able to, like I said before, accept God's word for what it is. And as I get through this, hopefully understand that the Bible is right. We don't want to get so zealous and far reaching in our own morality and maybe in what has been taught to us and ingrained in us in our own hatred of slavery in general, which again, I'm not saying that, you know, slavery is a good thing and the Bible's not saying that slavery is a good thing. But when you're dealing with a sinful world, there are situations that come up that just need to be dealt with one way or another. And God's system of justice is the right one. Okay. So what, what do you mean by all this? And what does this have to do with someone being a slave or a bond servant? Well, I had you turn to Exodus 22. We covered this last week, but I brushed over it when it has to do, first of all, if someone is a thief, right? If someone's stealing something from someone else, we went over God's justice system and how God's system is better than our system, where the victim is paid two times or seven times or five times, whatever, whatever the judgment is, it's appropriate. The victim gets reimbursed for their loss, for everything else. And that is a punishment to the perpetrator. But in Exodus 22, look at verse number one, the Bible says, if a man steal, if a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he died, there shall be no bloodshed for him. Look at verse number three. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be bloodshed for him, for he should make full restitution. So this is you catch a thief. He needs to pay and make a full restitution to the person that he stole from. But then it says, if he have nothing, so you got someone who's poor, they don't have anything. And they go to steal probably because they don't have anything. And they, they, they're in need and they want something and they decided to take from somebody else. So if they don't have anything, it says, then he shall be sold for his theft. So when a person is sold, they become a bond servant because at that point he's lost his freedom. When you steal from someone else, you have to pay it back. That is justice. And that is right. And I brought this up last week, but we have a criminal justice system that's just going to put them in a cage somewhere, right? If you can't pay, if you can't make a good one, they're going to lock you in a jail cell, and they're going to feed you and clothe you and put you in a cell with a bunch of criminals. And what good is that really going to accomplish? How does that help the victim at all? There is no balancing of justice there. Do you just have a punishing of one, but not a balance of, of, of helping out the victim. In God's method, the person is sold. Now look, did he have to become a bond servant? Well, if he wasn't, if he didn't choose to steal from people, then he wouldn't become a bond servant. So because the Bible has a law in, in, on the books to deal with people who sin and do things that are wrong, doesn't mean that the Bible is promoting slavery. Now there's many, you know, and just as a side note, there's many laws in the Bible that doesn't mean it's promoting the behavior. For example, polygamy is never endorsed in scripture. From the very beginning, God made man, male and female, man and woman. And they too, those twain shall be one flesh. Okay. Two become one in union marriage. God didn't ordain to have multiple wives and everything. Now, did people do this? Yes. Do people still do this today? Yes. Will people continue to do this? Yes. So in order, but here's the thing, was it against the law in a, in a civil government to have more than one wife? No. Is it against God's law? Yes. But is it against this? We're talking about human government. Was there any penalty or punishment for a man to take two wives? No. But the law still needs to have to deal with these situations that people sin and they're doing something that's not right, but they do it anyways. So there's a lot of, there's not a lot, but there's some laws that deal with, okay, well, if a man takes a wife and he takes another wife and he doesn't like his first wife because he likes the second one better, that he can't diminish her role as his wife. And he still has to support her and honor her and everything else. You know, that doesn't endorse polygamy. It's a system of law that deals with people doing things that they shouldn't do. That's just one example. There's other examples like that in scripture where you have laws. It doesn't mean it's a promotion of it. It's just, it's dealing with a problem. So in this, in this sense, and look, this isn't the only reason why there's bond servants, but we're going to get to that. But essentially it's, it's tied together. If someone's not able to make payment for something that they, that they owe on like stealing from someone, and now you've got to pay them back and make it right. There's no other choice in order for the victim to be reimbursed, but for that person then to have to work and have to work for them and work off their debt. Now, I don't see a problem with that at all. But if you just say, well, he's a slave, then his slave's bad. And you know, I get it, but you know what? This is a much better system than what we have right now of, of throwing people in a cage. I'm serious. Like, you know, people, it's a hot button issue. And people, you know, it's real easy to just say, well, all slavery is bad. I don't care what you say. You can't just own someone. Well, you know what? I think this makes a lot more sense. And according to the Bible, that's a bond servant. But here's the other thing too, and we're going to get into this as we see this, is that, you know, slaves or bond servants, they're not just like slaves for their whole life, unless they choose to do that. And we'll get, we'll get into all the details. Okay. There is in God's system and God's economy, still a way to be free, to receive your freedom. You've paid your debt, it's done, and now you're free. But because people get in these situations though, the thing is, in that loss of freedom you owe to that person. So that lowers your rights in a sense, because you belong to someone now. And we're going to see the ramifications of that. It's not an endorsement. It is a legal way of dealing with the situation at hand. Now we started off in Second Kings chapter four, and before we even get into Second Kings four, think about this too. You know, we see a theme in the scripture over and over of, you know, we ought to be people of our word, right? What you say you're going to do, you ought to do, you ought to be able to back everything up that you say, have integrity, work hard, work for what, you know, for yourself, for your family, provide and do all these things. And when you say something, it's good. Well, sometimes people, you know, maybe they're not stealing, but they have to borrow money. They make bad choices, whatever. Something happens and they find themselves in a situation where they have to borrow money. Now, if you get to a point where you have to borrow money and then you're not able to pay it back, that's a problem, right? Well, what do we have in this country to deal with that? We have bankruptcy. Right? So in this country, what happens is that you can go off and spend all kinds of money that you don't have and owe someone and then go, Oh, well, I can't pay it back. And basically you kind of just receive a forgiveness of all of that debt. And you know what happens for the person you borrowed from? They get nothing. That's right. Now, one of the things that makes it easier for people to swallow this is because you look at, well, who are you really stealing from these days? And it's these big corporations and big banks that do evil things anyway. So people want to justify it and say, well, they're all wicked anyway. So who cares if I steal from them and they've got all this money and whatever, but you can't justify that. Doesn't justify what you do. I remember when the housing market was tanked. I bought a house in Arizona at 2007 at probably the worst time you could buy a house in recent history. Really, really expensive for what you're getting right before everything plunged, you know, and from a fiscal standpoint, it didn't make sense to just to keep the house because people were walking away from their houses left and right. But here's the thing. What's the right thing to do? If you agree and say, Hey, I'm going to make this payment and I choose to purchase this house at this price, then that's what you do. I mean, you're signing your name saying I'm going to make this payment and this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make good on it and I'm signing my name to it. That's my word. This is what I'm agreeing to. Then that's what you do. You've already agreed to that. You can't go back and change the deal later. Now, just because you might manipulate, Oh, well there's lots of people. So they're not going to want to lose me. Right. And I'm just going to force them to, to take this back or whatever. I'm just, I'm backing out of it. That's wicked. And that's wrong. And a lot of people did that. I didn't do that. Cause it's not right. Cause you have to have integrity when you do these things. But in our system, you can take the clear bankruptcy or whatever. And, and you know what? People use that to steal. They'll go off and run up credit cards and just get all kinds of stuff. And then they'll like put them under other people's names or something. So when they go and try to repo things to try to get their money back and get their assets back that, that you went and you know, you can't pay, they don't get those back. And then people just declare bankruptcy and it's just washed away. And then the victim still just goes unpaid in God's system. It's different. It's more just because if you rack up a debt and you can't pay it, guess what? You work it off. Again, that is what a bond service is. So we started in second Kings four again, keep a place in Exodus, cause we're coming right back there. But in second Kings chapter four, look at verse number one, this is a story in scripture about someone who is found themselves in a situation of having a creditor and not able to pay the debt. So verse number one, the Bible reads, now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, thy servant, my husband is dead. And now know us that thy servant did fear the Lord. And the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be the bondmen. So here we have a situation where this guy's, this guy's a preacher and he dies and he had this debt. His wife's not able to go to work, right? She's raising the children, raising the family at home. He was the breadwinner. He was a preacher. He had, for whatever reason, we don't know what the reason, it doesn't matter what the reason is. I mean, it could have been just circumstances came up, medical expenses, whatever things happen, just kind of outside of your control. Maybe he wasn't wise with his money. Maybe he was, I don't know, but he's not able to pay. He's dead. But the guy's like, Hey, I still need to be paid. So in order for him to get paid, he's coming to retrieve to work, you know, two sons that are able to work. They're going to pay off this debt. You owe this debt. It's right. It's the right thing. And then of course, so we have, Elisha gets involved here. Obviously, is it a good thing that they're going to go and be bond servants? No, it's not a good thing, but is it the right thing to pay off a debt? Yeah, it's the right thing to do. Verse two says, and Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, what has thou in the house? And she said, thy handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oils. I mean, they're really poor. So we don't have anything. So then he says, go borrow these vessels abroad of all the neighbors, empty vessels, borrow not a few. So she goes and gets all these vessels and basically performs, God performed this miracle where she's able to just multiply all this oil. And then he says, then she came and told the man of God and he said, go sell the oil and pay the debt and live thou and thy children of the rest. So obviously God steps in here. Elisha performs this miracle, to be able to then pay off what they owe, because again, that's right. They owed money, they owed a debt, but they're able to pay it off so they don't have to be bond servants. And then he gives them a little extra to be able to survive off of and live off of. And I believe here we see, I mean, God takes care of people. He takes care of his people even in these bad situations, but that doesn't mean that it's a good thing for them to be slaves. It's not promoted. Obviously nobody likes the situation. I bet the creditor doesn't like to have to then deal with having someone come and work for, I mean, probably rather just have the money that he, that he lent to him, come back to him and be able to use it however he wants to, instead of having to take this other form of payment of having a laborer that, I mean, they might not even be that good of a laborer, right? I mean, who knows? Who knows what you're getting? I mean, they weren't able to make enough money to pay you back and now they got to come and work for you, but it's only right to have that type of a, of a situation. So let's go back to Exodus. Now look at Exodus 21. And I wanted to start with this because if you have the right mindset of just why is this even a thing? Now you're going to see it starts to make more sense why there's laws governing this type of a thing. When you have either creditors or thieves, making people come into bondage to become bond servants, to pay off debts that they owe. Well, now you need to regulate that and deal with that. It's not God's plan that anybody should be a bond servant. That's not what he wants for people, but you got to deal with it. Cause people are sinners. So let's look at Exodus 21 verse number two, the Bible reads, if thou buy and Hebrew servant six years, he shall serve. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. So this is already putting a limitation on the amount of service a servant can provide for someone that's being bought to be a servant. He said the six years and then the seventh year is a year of release. So one of the good things about God's economy also is that it provides relief for people to be able to get past the problems that may come up in their life. So you're not just indentured forever, right? You may have some serious event happen in your life. Like I said, you know, these days you could have some medic, some big major medical problem that can literally just put you in debt for the rest of your life. And you'll never be able to get beyond that. And see the thing is with God's economy, he puts a limit on things. It puts a limit on people being able to accumulate too much and just become super rich within the land because there's a, uh, uh, the year of Jubilee, which is every 50 years, that anyone who's been buying other people's lands to cultivate it and to make money, right? They only get a lease on that land. They don't get full ownership because God wanted all the tribes to have their own inheritance, that they don't ever lose that land. And you don't end up having one person or one family or whatever, just, you know, one small group of people that just controls everything. So he has a reset button to be able to say, okay, you know, they could go back then and buy, but they have to reinvest. They have to just put that money back, which is just going to help those people. Then if they're going to sell their land again or lease it out again for another 50 years, well, they're going to get, you know, they're going to get paid for it and say, yeah, well, I'm not going to do anything with anyways, I can't cultivate it. I don't have the right equipment, but he does. So yeah, I'm going to, but, but it's more of a mutual mutually beneficial situation there instead of just one person just kind of eating everything up and then just owning it forever. Right. But that's, that's a whole nother sermon on the year of Jubilee and the release of debt and stuff. This is somewhat related to that because when it comes to servitude, I mean, you got a six year maximum basically before you're done. Seventh year, that's, that's enough. God didn't want people to just become these bond servants for, you know, forever. Verse three, if he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. So basically it's kind of like the state that the person's in, that's entering into this, this being a bond servant. It's the same state he leaves. So you came in, if you came in with a wife, you're gonna leave with your wife. You came in single, you're gonna leave single, you know, like, like whatever. Right. Verse number four, it says, if his master had given him a wife and she had borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself. And this is probably one of the things that a lot of people might have a hard time with and say, well, wait a minute, because marriage is so, you know, uh, so personal and, and, and, you know, it's hard to see somebody not being able to leave with their wife, right? Cause you've, you've vowed a vow, you're joined together, but what you're giving up by becoming a bond servant is your freedom because you're belonging to somebody else. Now, these people that like, like if the master has given him a wife of his household, right, to marry, normally there's a dowry given to the father for the wife. Well, the guy who's a bond server doesn't have anything at all to begin with, to give for the wife because he's already working off a debt that he owes and those people, the daughter, whoever he gives would be valuable still to him. And, uh, basically the Bible is putting here that, well, they're still going to remain with the master. Now it doesn't mean that the master can't let them go to if he wanted to, right? But it's just, he has the authority to say, no, they're going to stay here and, and you know, they're in my household, so they're going to, they're going to stay here. So if the person who then gets married decides to stay, he could stay. That's what verse five says. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. So this is a legal procedure for this saying, okay, well he was, he served what he needs to serve, but he's decided he wants to stay because now he's got a wife and kids and everything else. And see, you know, it's not like the servant has no idea that this is the law either, right? He could choose not to get married knowing that this is the case. You can say, yeah, you know what? I'm just going to wait till I'm free and then I'll get married. So it's not like this is the only option, right? So he's got it. You got to think about these things and remember, it's like, Hey, if someone really wants to do this, okay, but because during the time of your servitude, you are under-bonded, you belong to someone else. Well, we'll see this a little bit. The Bible says that you're their money. You don't have the freedom. Now look, I love freedom and God loves freedom and God wants people to be free. But you know what? There's certain situations where this is just, where this is just the right way to deal with things. So you still have to then go and say, well, how do we deal with a person who's in bondage? Then, you know, taking a wife and having the kids and then taking all that away from the person where he went into. You see what I'm saying? Like, you're not, you think about this in terms of more, because it's all financial of what's being done then in the situation. So just strictly speaking, this has nothing to do with emotion. This has to do all with just paying off a debt and how the person ends up at the end of it. So anyways, he's able to do this. It says, they go to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or onto the post. His master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him forever. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do. If she please not her master who has betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed to sell her onto a strange nation. He shall have no power seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her. And if he had betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. So again, verse 10 has that if he take him another wife, which wasn't right, but if he does that, her food, or raiment, or duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. She still needs to take care of the first wife. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. So this is dealing with a woman bond servant. The men are going to be working. The women oftentimes here are being sold to become wives, to be espoused to someone else. And that's what it says. If he betrothed her to himself or unto her son, then they're supposed to be dealt with as a wife. I mean, as you know, respected as a wife and everything else and duty of marriage and that if they don't, so a lot of what we're going to see here too, and let me just explain this because someone is under bondage, in other situations, you might have a different penalty for someone who doesn't, who, you know, who, who kind of sins against these people. But what the, what the servant gets is their freedom instead of other punishments or other things happening in similar situations where the person is free. So we'll see this a little bit more too, as we continue on here, jump down to verse number 18, the Bible says, and if men strive together and one smite another with a stone or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed, if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So this is talking about verses 18 and 19, two guys get in a fight, right? And one guy hits the other guy with a stone or with his fist, but he doesn't die, but he really, he injures him, right? He causes some, some serious injury to the person. And it says, well, if he's able to basically recover. So it says if he rises again, right, he's always, he didn't kill him. He didn't mortally wound him, but he's able to kind of get back all the time that he lost because of that though, the guy needs to pay him back for it. I mean, obviously you're laid up for a while. You know, he might have to be rehabilitated, all the costs, everything else that's associated with that. The guy who did that to him is responsible for that. So he's going to have to pay him to get back to, you know, it makes sense, right? Now we're going to deal with in the next two verses, basically it's the same situation that, which is why it comes after 18 and 19, we have 20 and 21. But in this case, it has to do with someone who's not free because they're a bond servant. Okay. Verse 20 says, and if a man smite his servant or is made with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. He killed him, right? Of course he's going to be punished not withstanding. If he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished for he is his money. So in the first situation, you have someone who's free, gets in a fight, the punishment for the guy who injured him real bad was to pay, to pay money. Well, for the person who's not free and he's working for this guy, he's hurting himself by making his servant not be able to work for him and is already, you know, have to, you know, in a sense, pay for that because his loss of time, what is his loss of time? He's not earning an income anyways. He's just paying what he already owed to his master. Does that, does that make sense? Like, like the other, the one guy that was free is getting reimbursed for the time he would have been working and earning money. Well, this guy isn't earning money because he's paying off a debt. So basically the reason why he doesn't have an extra payment on top of that is because he's hurt himself already. I mean, hopefully that makes sense everyone, because I mean, it makes sense to me. It's not saying that, you know, it's basically the same punishment. It's an equal type of punishment. And it's not saying that it's okay. And then look, is this endorsing and saying that a man should smite his servants or made with a rod, that that's a good thing, that that's what God wants them to do, that that's somehow not sinful? No. The Bible doesn't endorse this abuse of anyone. And we'll get into that soon too as well. But this isn't the way that anyone is supposed to treat other people, whether they're free or bond. That's not what you're supposed to be doing. But because there are such a thing as bond servants, you have to deal with situations like this and what is just and what is right. And that's what the Bible is doing here when we're talking about these bond servants. So jump down to verse number 26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish. So this is, this is going to be a long lasting, you know, this, this is something you don't, you don't ever get back, right? He injures them in a way where it's, it's a permanent thing. He shall let him go free for his eyes sake. So he's just saying, okay, that's it. You know, when you do something like that, they're free. They don't owe you anymore. They're going to, they're going to go away free. And if he smite out his man's servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake, right? So that's, that's the thing there. Obviously it's not a good thing. It's not something they should be doing, but they are going to end up suffering loss because now that person's gone, you don't have them working for you anymore at all. So you shouldn't treat, you shouldn't treat people like that. It's not an endorsement of physical abuse. It's actually, it's still a punishment and it's, and it, and it coincides with, with God's punishment for someone to do that against a free person. It's, it's, it's equal because the value of a bond servant isn't any less than the value of a free person in God's eyes. They both have the same value of being human beings. It's just a different situation for the punishment. Turn to Leviticus chapter 25. And like I said, I'm not going to try to sugar coat this. And I'm not going to say that every single time the Bible talks about a servant, it's just a hired servant because it's not true. There's bond servants. There's two different types of servants. I'm not going to make it sound like people, that there's not laws regarding people being the property of someone else because there are. The Bible does talk about that. But again, if you think about in your mind of just what comes up when you think of slavery, it's not exactly the same as what the Bible is describing here. And let's look at some more verses. There's a lot of verses about this subject. Leviticus 25, look at verse number 39, the Bible says, and if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant. So here is a situation where someone is going to be a bond servant because they're poor, they don't have any money and they need, you know, they're just going to end up selling themselves to work for somebody. And he says, don't compel them to serve as a bond servant, but as an hired servant. This is how you ought to, if you're going to, if you're going to go and and buy someone, you should treat them as an hired servant and not as a bond servant. That is what you should do. He says, but as an hired servant and as a sojourner, sojourner is someone who's temporarily staying in the land, right? And he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee. And the year of Jubilee, again, they get, they get released, right? Verse 41, and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his father shall he return for they are my servants. So you're saying, look, these other people, these other brethren, you know, brothers and sisters in Christ, other people that are, that, you know, your neighbor is well and by you, he says, they're my servants, they're God's servants. So you treat God's servants as a hired servant, even if they're in the situation of being, you know, because they're poor and they need, you know, they need, they have no other place to turn to, but to, but to sell themselves in the servitude. He's saying, you treat them as my servant. They are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as bondmen. Verse 43, thou shalt not, look at this, thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. So what does God, is he, is he saying, well, you just need to whoop them and beat them and, you know, treat them. No, you don't rule over him with rigor. You treat them as a servant of God. Verse 44, both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have shall be of the heathen that around about you of them shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you of them, shall you buy and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land and they shall be your possession. And yes, the Bible says that about these heathen. And you think about the heathen, they were supposed to have been wiped out and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Prisites and the, and the Hivites and the Jebusites. They were supposed to have been killed and completely wiped out and they weren't. And because they weren't wiped out, you know, they ended up becoming these bondmaids and, and bond servants as a result of not losing their lives, which, which was supposed to have happened to begin with. But that's, that's kind of a, another thing here. Uh, verse 47, or excuse me, verse number 46, and ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you do inherit them for a possession. They shall be your bondmen forever, but over your brother and the children of Israel, you shall not rule one over another with rigor. So there is definitely a distinction here being brought between the heathen and the children of God. There's no denying that there absolutely is. Verse 47 and if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor and sell himself unto the stranger sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family. After that he is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem him. So here's another opportunity for people to be redeemed from their bond service, right? So if someone is, you know, they're poor, they have no re, you know, no resources and they're going to sell themselves and buy theirs. Someone else, someone of their family, someone of their close kin, or even themselves, if they're able to later than be able to redeem themselves, they're not locked in. They could just pay back and go, okay, here you go. Now, now I'm quit. Now I'm free to be able to, uh, to be free from that bondage. And then it says in verse 49, either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him. Or if he, if he be able, he may redeem himself and he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of Jubilee and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years according to the time of an hired servant. Shall it be with him? So basically, you know, he knows he's going to be released at the year of Jubilee. So what he does is because he sold himself here, he calculates the number of years left and uses an average wage for a servant that's doing the work to be for that many years and say, okay, well, here's what I was supposed to have worked for you and I'm just paying off that debt, that balance of years and being redeemed to be free. Right? So like if you, you think about a, uh, you know, a mortgage, you go into debt on a house for 30 years, but you want to be free from that debt. Well, what you're going to do is you're going to say, well, how much do I still owe for the balance of time? And you're going to pay that off and then you're no longer in that debt. You're no longer, um, bound to that creditor. Right? Um, let's see here. Where did I leave off? Verse number 51. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them, he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years under the year of Jubilee, then he shall count with him and according unto his years, shall he give him again, the price of his redemption. So it was just a pro rated thing. It's just fair, right? Whatever's left. It's not like you have to pay the whole amount. You only got like two years left. No, he's got to pay the two years worth. And then you're done verse 53. And as a yearly hired servant, shall he be with him? And the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, both he and his children with him for unto the, for unto me, the children of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. And there is a distinction again. I'm just going to bring this up because it was brought up here between the, the children of God and the heathen, just like even in the new Testament, there's a distinction, you know, brother ought not to go to law with the brother, right? And that before the unbelievers. Now, if you have an issue with someone out in the world, some heathen, some unbelievers, then you go to law with that person. And there's nothing wrong with that. But in the house of God, you don't do it that way. And it's a similar thing here with the bond servants. He's saying, yeah, with someone at the heathen, then the bond service was permitted, but not with your brothers and sisters in Christ that you treat them as a servant of the Lord. And that's what the Bible says. Okay. And I'm not going to make an excuse for apologize for it. God is right in what he wrote. And when he, you know, even with the children of Israel turn to, turn to Deuteronomy 15, this actually works out perfect because this is, this is the verse that popped into my mind. I just so happens to be the next verse of my notes when he, when he's explaining to them is that God's plan for them was not, and it's, and for everybody, but definitely for his people, is not to be in bondage to anyone else. In Deuteronomy 15, verse number six, the Bible reads for the Lord, thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. This is the situation that we are, you know, that, that he wanted his people to get themselves into where they're not just going into debt, going into debt, because why, when you're going into debt with someone, they become your master and you become their servant because you are bound now to pay off that debt. He's saying it needs to be the other way around. Yeah. You could go ahead and lend to other people and then they'll serve you, but I don't want you serving other nations. You know, I'll bless you so that you have abundance and you can lend off to these other nations. And even with the taxes, I mean, you see in the new Testament, you know, it's, it's who is supposed to pay the taxes. Even Jesus said this, you know, is it the, the, the children of the land or is it for, of strangers? He's like, well, strangers are supposed to pay the taxes, right? Because they're, they're of some other country or whatever. And that's what was acceptable. And that was what was right, but not your own people. And he's saying the same thing here of, of the strangers, of these other people, these other nations, you can allow them to become these bond servants, but not to your own people. And again, there's no, there, there would be no reason why would anyone have to, you know, become a bond servant except they're voluntarily getting into that situation or it's because, you know, voluntarily at one end or another, right? Because they can't owe a debt that they agreed to pay or they stole from somebody. So somewhere along the way, they, they, they came up with this choice to have to do that. I mean, if you've got family members or other people that can help you out, just so you know, then great, but not everyone has that. And sometimes all that can be done to right the wrongs is to become a bond servant. And even when we saw that about ruling over them with rigor, God's not saying that it's good or right to rule over anyone with rigor, but he's saying you better not, you better make sure you're not doing that to my people. Right? God's not saying that it was acceptable to just go ahead and, and beat up and do whatever you want to these other people. But it wasn't as stringent of the policy against them. That makes sense just because it's, God's saying they're my servants, right? So let's keep reading here in Deuteronomy chapter 15, look at verse number seven. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates and thy land, which the Lord thy God give at thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need and that which he wanted. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart saying the seventh year, the year of release is at hand and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother. And thou givest him not. And he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. So what the Bible teaching here is that if you have someone who's poor of your brethren and they're in need, then you help them. And even if that year of Jubilee, if the year of release is coming up soon, you're like, man, it's next year and his debt's going to be wiped clean. I don't want to give him anything. God's saying, no, you give, you better, you support, you help out your brother that's in need. You lend to him. Don't worry about that year of release that's coming up. He's saying, because if they, if they cry unto me and because no one's now is going to, is going to help him out when he's in a time of need, because no one will lend to him. Then he says, um, it's going to be a sin unto thee. And obviously if it's a sin, then God is going to take care of that. So, uh, this is the way God is telling him to deal with people, especially their own people is to, is to help them out by lending unto them verse 10. And of course, you know, this is another area, but they're not supposed to charge usury either usury is interest. So the people of their own land, other children of God, you're not supposed to be charging any interest on further, causing them to be in debt, right? If someone needs to borrow money because they're in need, you should lend to them. Now it's only right to get paid back what you lend somebody, right? And that's, what's the case is here. And that's why God's saying, Hey, if someone borrows from you, lend them back. But at the year of Jubilee, there's this release where that money is forgiven. And he's saying, you know what, when someone comes into need, don't just, uh, don't just say, well, I don't want to help them out because I know that they're not going to be able to pay it all back. Whatever he says, just do it. And you know what I guarantee you, God's going to bless the people that gave to help, you know, even though there was going to be a release coming soon, guaranteed verse number 10 says thou shalt surely give him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because that for this thing, the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works. And in all that thou put is thine hand unto. There it is. There's the promise from God saying, I'll bless you if you do this. See, God wants his people taken care of. Sometimes people need to borrow, but you don't try to oppress them by charging a musery and you don't oppress them by them, you know, being a boncer and you just, just ruling over them with rigor. That's what God says. You don't do those things. Verse number 11, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land. And if thy brother and Hebrew man or in Hebrew woman be sold unto thee and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out of thy winepress of that wherewith the Lord thy God has blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. So this is the way God wants you to deal with, with other people, the other children of God. He's saying, you know, if someone serves you for the six years and you're gonna let them go out free, someone that would be a brother in Christ, you don't just let them go out free with nothing. You bless them on the way out. You help them out. Hey, thanks for serving me for all those years. God's really blessed me. He's blessed the work of your hands. So I'm going to, I'm going to give you a little portion of all that blessing that I received while you've been working for me. Here you go. Good luck. I hope you, you know, and send them out with a blessing instead of just, okay, well there you go. You're back to square one. Now you paid off your debt. It's no, let, let's help your brother out. Help a brother out. Come on. It's some HBO. What verse I leave off on verse number 14, thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock. We read that verse number 15 and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Therefore I command thee, this thing today saying, don't forget where you came from. You were all servants. You're all bond servants before, you know, so help them out. Verse 16 and it shall be, if you say unto thee, I will not go away from thee because he loveth thee and thine house because he is well with thee, then thou shall take an all and thrust it through his ear unto the door. And he shall be thy servant forever. And also unto thy maid servant thou shalt do likewise. And it shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free from thee for he has been worth a double hired servant to thee in serving these six years and the Lord thy God shall bless thee and all that thou doest. So this is just an opportunity for that person. You know, they really enjoy working for them. They're living well. They're being treated well. Everything's going great. They've got a good relationship going and got a good setup. So they've served what they need to serve, but they're saying, you know what, why, why should I go out and then try to do something else? I've already established myself here. I've been working for six years. I'm good at what I do. You know, whatever, right? I've, I've gained these skills. I could be a good asset for you. I like working for you. Then he can just continue to stay there and be cared for and to, and you know what, maybe he's just fine with that. Like he's not out trying to make a whole bunch of extra for himself. He said, you know what, if you're going to take care of me and I can work for you, then great. This is what I'll just do then. And that's fine. And that was an option that he had to, to go off of, but nothing that anyone had to do. Verse number, excuse me, turn to chapter number 23. Okay. Look at verse number 15. This is kind of interesting too. When it, when it comes to masters and servants, and this doesn't specify, and I was, I don't think I, I brought this up before, but we've seen there's two different types of servants. You could have, you know, bond servants and hired servants. And actually it's almost like three because then the people who are like choose to, to just be in servitude for the rest of their life. I don't know. It's not really like a bond servant. It's, that seems like a little bit different situation too, but, um, oftentimes you'll just see references to servants in the Bible. You don't always know which one specifically it's referring to except for the context. And oftentimes it might not even matter. It might just be applying to all types of servants. Right. And I think that's usually the case, especially in the new Testament when it talks about servants and masters, uh, we're gonna look at those verses last, but that can be applicable to any situation that you're in, whether you're bond or free as a hired servant. But just in, in relation here too, with how God views servants, you think about someone who maybe is being oppressed somewhere and they, and they leave and they, and they flee from, from being in that servitude. Look what the Bible says in verse number 15, it says, thou shalt not deliver unto his master, the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you in that place, which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him. So God's not looking just to oppress people. Now, if someone has a bond servant or whatever, then it looks to me like it's going to be up to that person to deal with their bond servant. But it's not everyone else's job to go and just, Oh man, we're going to arrest this guy and take him and ship him back to wherever he's saying, don't oppress him. Just let them live and do whatever. Right. It's not, it's basically, it's not your business. You don't oppress him. You just let him live among you and, and, and whatever. I think that gives, um, that probably gives more weight to people who really are being, you know, being, being horribly dealt with instead of, uh, you know, and just being able to get away from, from just a really bad situation like that because God doesn't condone that at all. But look at verse number, excuse me, flip over to chapter 24. Now Deuteronomy 24 almost done. Verse number 14 Bible says, thou shalt not oppress and hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land, within thy gates at his day, thou shalt give him his hire. Neither shall the sun go down upon it for he is poor and set at his heart upon it. Let's he cry against the end of the Lord and it be sin unto thee. So this is again, reference to a hired servant as opposed to a bond servant that basically whoever is, whoever is the employer is, you pay that person for their work and you pay them as soon as they're done with their job. You know, every day that they're working for you because they need that money and you can't just hold it until it's convenient for you to pay him. What's right in the Bible is that you just pay him for the work. Okay. You worked for me today. You get paid today. And boy, that would, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Be able to receive your, your money that you've already worked for the same day. According to God, that's, that's the, that's the way it ought to be done. Not exactly the way we do things now, but no one ever said we've got the most perfect system, even if it is better than, than other world governments and other systems. Right. It's not better than God's. All right. Let's, um, let's just, yeah, let's move on to the new Testament now. Turn if you would to Colossians three. It's the last place I'll have you turn Colossians chapter three. Okay. I had one more passage, but I don't think I really have enough time to get into that in enough detail. I'd like to, but you get the idea with the, with the bond servants versus the hired servants. We've seen a lot of what the scripture talks about. God's not endorsing slavery, but it is a just way to deal with debts to deal with what's owed so that the person who's owed money actually can get something back and not just have to eat it every time. You know, it's God's economy works. I'm going to read for you. Turn to Colossians chapter three, first Corinthians seven, the Bible reads in verse 20, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. He's saying, well, whether you're a servant or free, and this would be in reference to, you know, a bond servant because it's saying you're not free. So he's saying, Hey, are you called being a servant? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You can still serve the Lord. He says, but if thou mayest be made free, if you're able to be made free, then, then use it. Great. That's even better. Right? Use it, but don't worry about it. If you're not free. He says in verse 22, for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man because when you work for God, God's going to take care of you. And you can be a servant in this life, but you're going to be the Lord's free man. And he says, likewise, also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. Kind of puts you on the same playing field, basically, whether you're bond or free. And when you're doing the work of the Lord, he says you are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. God doesn't want you to be in bondage. God doesn't want you to not have Liberty and be free. He says, be not the servants of men. He said, but you're bought with a price. Why? Because we are God's bond servant. When you think about that, we are bought with a price. Christ has paid the price of our sin. We're indebted to him forever. Now, thank God. He's given us a free gift, but I mean, just all that he's done for us, we're bought, we belong to him and we, and we need to realize that as well and get that through our own heads before you know that we get not too puffed up and an idea of freedom and Liberty to just push us beyond who our master really is. Right? Because the Lord is our master and, and we, I remember that and it's not, it's not a bad thing. Okay. He's not, God is not some, you know, horrible, abusive master. He's a good master and treats us very well and is very loving and forgiving and all the better for us. Right? Colossians chapter three, look at verse number 22. We're closing with this. The Bible reads, servants, obey and all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. And then in verse chapter four, the very next chapter, verse one, by reads, masters give unto your servants that which is just an equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So this is, we're going to close on just as advice of whether it be master or servant. This is how you ought to behave yourself, bond or free. This is how you ought to behave yourself. You ought to work as if you're working for Christ. If you're, if you're a servant, you do the best job that you possibly can. And if you're a master, if you're a boss, if you have people underneath you, then you give that which is just an equal, you don't oppress, you don't beat down. You know, you remember, Hey, I've got a master in heaven and the way that I conduct myself is the way that he's going to conduct himself with me because you reap what you sow. And if you, if you come off thinking that you can get away with gypping people and stealing from them or oppressing them, because what are they going to do? They need this job anyway. So I'm going to give them as little money as possible just to keep them here or whatever. That's wicked and wrong. And you know what? God's going to deal with you the same way. We ought to be liberal in the sense of, you know, as far as a master's perspective of, of treating their, their servants well, but as a servant, you don't have the bad, bitter attitude going, man, you know, I don't want, you know, I'm stuck here painting. I don't like doing this work or whatever. You know, you work as if you're working for Christ. You don't have that bad attitude. You serve as if you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's, that's the perspective. No matter what side you fall on. That's what the Bible teaches. Bible's not pro slavery. It's not in favor. I don't think God likes it that anyone would be in slavery to anyone else or be in bondage or be servants to anyone. But sometimes it happens or it would be the just way of dealing with the debts. So hopefully that helps you understand this subject a little bit better. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for the wisdom in your words. God, I pray that you would please just help us to, um, to continue to understand things, especially things that might seem a little foreign to us. If we don't deal with it on a regular basis, it's not part of, of kind of our, our day to day life. Lord, help us to understand these concepts and that we could embrace the, uh, the wisdom and truth that's found in your word, dear Lord, and help it to form and shape, uh, our own thoughts and that we wouldn't think of ourselves as being more moral and just than you are and be able to get our guidance from your words and help it to teach us the right way to Jesus name. We pray. Amen. All right. We're gonna turn to one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Carter, please lead us in our last song.